[Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news

[sako4 at comcast.net]

This is great data. Thanks. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "she-la" <sheila.dawn50 at yahoo.com> 
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 10:30:37 PM 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

Here are some basic statistics I pulled from KMUD's 2013 Budget to Actual Report by their Treasurer, Julia Minton. It was not yet approved by the Board. 
Total income revenue 529,776.00 
Goods, Services , Trade income. 14,100.00 
Total Support. 543,876.00 

Projected Costs 
Subtotal Wages & Salary. 260,416.64 
Breakdown by Position. 
Station Manager. 41, 600.00 
Program Manager. 36, 150.40 
Program Assistant. 18, 096.00 
Music Director. 16, 640.00 
News Directors (2). 42, 906.24 
Underwriting Representative. 26, 400.00 
Technical Director. 32, 032.00 
Traffic Manager. 26, 624.00 
Interim Volunteer Coordinator. 19, 968.00 
Employer Payroll Costs 
Employer Payroll Taxes. 30, 598.96 
Worker's Compensation. 7, 239.58 

Total Salary & Employer Costs. 298, 255.18 

Under Staff & Org. Development 
Training & Recruitment. 3, 000.00 

Operating Expenses. 13, 000.00 
Programs (Rental or Subscription). 12, 000.00 
Web Streaming. 1, 000.00 

Total Fundraising Expenses. 33, 000.00 
Total Operating Expenses. 46, 000.00 

Professional Services. Total. 59, 220.00 
(Includes Accounting & Bookkeeping, Legal & Professional, Website Development & Hosting, Technical & Engineering, News Stringers, Janitorial, Maint. & Security and Other Consultants. 
News Stringers. 8, 000.00 

A bit dry but it is evident that KMUD puts way more into the community via salaries & professional services than does KZYX. 
Why can't KZYX be as transparent with its employees salaries? Note the large figure for fundraising expenses. KMUD makes a huge effort to interact with the community vs. KZYX getting its revenue from increased pledge drives --doubled last year from 2 per year to 4 per year. 
Sheila Dawn 

sako4 at comcast.net wrote: 


I tried being a stringer for Paul Lambert. No go. I was made to feel like I was twisting his arm on covering the meetings of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (BOS). Lambert blew a perfect opportunity. 


It made perfect sense for me to file stories on the BOS, because, at that time -- 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 -- I was the member of Grand Jury Mendocino County assigned to attended all BOS meetings and file reports with the entire Grand Jury on BOS business. County Counsel reviewed my final reports. They were factual, vetted, relevant. 


It felt like a hard sell trying to get Lambert to run my stories, so I gave up. 


I would remind readers on this listserv that my news instincts are fairly decent. Not only do I do my bi-weekly show, but I regularly filed stories with David Brooksher, and before Brooksher, with Paul Hanson. 


For a few years after the financial crash of 2008, Hanson had me on the air 2-3 times a week, and sometimes more. That was back when "Community News" was an hour-long. Brooksher ran my stories about once every two weeks. 


And now? And now we have two talking heads read press releases or excerpts from the Ukiah Daily Journal for ten minutes. And these talking heads? One is a friend of Coate. The other is a friend of Board member, Holly Madrigal. 


Neither one of these two part-time news jobs were posted or advertised. The hiring process was an inside job all the way. 


The final insult? One of these two part-time news reporters once worked for the Voice of America (VOA). Many critics of the VOA regard it to be a mouthpiece for both the U.S. Department of State and the CIA. The VOA broadcasts its propaganda in most of the developing world, and their signal regularly drowns out local broadcasts. The VOA will even jam local broadcasts that they regard as being particularly unfavorable to the American point of view. They do this all the time in Cuba. 


Does KZYX really want someone who worked for the U.S. propaganda machine to be working for us? 


Were we even asked? 


I know for certain that the Board wasn't asked. Coate runs the show. The Board has ceded all authority to him. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "doug mckenty" <dougmck at gmail.com> 
To: pkovner at yahoo.com, kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 12:14:20 PM 
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Budgets & news 

According to David Brookshire, with whom I recently spoke, KMUD recently doubled the amount of money it spends on the news department including $10,000 set aside to pay for community stringers. They have also recently expanded to digital radio. 


I advocated for some time that KZYX look to this successful model for inspiration but was told by management that KMUD represented a niche market and a station like that would only work in Humbolt. While I was advocating this, KMUD encountered a hiccup in its financing when it had to sell a property for much less than it's budgeted value. As a result they went about 40k in debt. Management sent me the article about this as if to prove KMUD was just as insolvent as KZYX. KMUD instantly had an on air board access program to explain the situation and apologize. They then held one special pledge drive that made up for the 40k debt and they were back in black. 


At the board meeting where we approved the budget eliminating the news department, which I voted against, Annie Esposito explained the success of KMUD without NPR. Her pleas fell on deaf ears. 


Doug 

On Thursday, February 20, 2014, Patricia Kovner < pkovner at yahoo.com > wrote: 


Thanks for that info. I don't know what you mean by restricted income for NPR at KMUD, as they don't have NPR. They do, however, have many reporters contributing to their news show, but I don't know who is paid or how much. I bet some of them are volunteers. 
-------------------------------------------- 
On Thu, 2/20/14, Tim Bray < tbray at wildblue.net > wrote: 

Subject: Budgets & news 
To: pkovner at yahoo.com , kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org 
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2014, 10:07 AM 


According to 
the financial reports, 
KMUD has a slightly larger income than KZYX. Looking 
at the 2012 
Annual figures (available on each station's 
Website), KMUD 
received $562K and KZYX received $521K. Those 
figures are for 
"Unrestricted" income; KMUD had an 
additional $147K of "Restricted 
Income" which is tied by the donor to a specific 
use. I can't 
quite find what all of that is supposed to be 
earmarked for, but a 
chunk of it is CPB grants and direct contributions 
restricted to 
NPR programming. 



KMUD does not have a full hour of local news, it is a 
half-hour 
program. 



I don't think there is a single, simple reason why 
KZYX could not 
sustain a 50-minute local news program. (It was 
never quite a 
full hour.) It takes a lot of effort to produce that 
much news, 
more than one full-time newsperson, and so the 
budgetary 
restriction is a big part of it. It isn't a 
simple matter of 
trading 28 hours/week of NPR for 5 hours/week of local 
news. 



Tim Bray 



On 2/19/2014 3:07 PM, Patricia Kovner wrote: 



Is the reason KZYX no longer has a full news 
hour, because NPR programming has priority and there is not 
enough $$ for both? I'd like to know how KMUD budgets 
it's much smaller income to expand its already full news 
hour, with several reporters, and no NPR. 





-- 

Oak & 
Thorn 

Facebook: Oak and Thorn 


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